Staff

The Director of the Institute is Professor Pankaj Sharma. In addition to being its director he is also a consultant neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Professor Sharma holds a University of London Chair of Neurology at Royal Holloway. He is a former British Heart Foundation Clinician Scientist at Cambridge and a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Medical School. He holds double doctorates from both the University of Cambridge and University of London. Most recently he led the internationally renowned Imperial College Cerebrovascular Research Unit at Imperial College London.

Professor Sharma’s research seeks to use genetics, genomics and proteomics to advance human understanding of cerebrovascular disease in three key areas: prediction, diagnosis and treatment of stroke at the molecular level. He has a particular interest in the genetics of stroke in ethnic minorities, particularly South Asians and Middle Eastern populations.

He holds doctorates from the universities of London (MD) and Cambridge (PhD).

Professor Christopher Fry chairs the Institute and works with a steering group to map strategy. He is also chair of Applied Physiology in the School of Physiology, Pharmacology & Neuroscience at the University of Bristol.

Chris has held past posts at St Thomas’ Hospital, University College London and Surrey University and retains strong research collaborations with Surrey. His research interests centre around disorders of excitation-contraction in the heart and visceral smooth muscle and their relation to organ pathologies. He also has an interest in optimising cardiovascular system function in patients undergoing major surgery, as part of the enhanced recovery programme.

Dr Thang S Han

Dr Thang S Han trained in medicine at the University of Cambridge and in endocrinology at University College London Hospitals. He is currently consultant physician and endocrinologist at Ashford and St Peter's NHS Foundation Trust. His research interests are wide ranging covering from aetiology to health consequences of obesity and its prevention and treatment. Dr Han has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers (H-index: 44, citations: 9,700). His current research focuses on cardiometabolic risk in middle-aged and elderly European men and in cancer survivors.

Professor Dawn Langdon

Professor of Neuropsychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

Dawn Langdon completed her training as a clinical psychologist at Oxford University and the Institute of Psychiatry, London. She worked as a clinical neuropsychologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London for sixteen years, obtaining a PhD on reasoning in organic brain syndromes from the Institute of Neurology and registration as both a neuropsychologist and a health psychologist.

She is now Professor of Neuropsychology and Director of Health and Medicine at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her current work includes studying cognitive and other psychological impacts of TIA’s. She is Mental Health Work Package Lead on the NHS England Community Neurology Project; her contribution includes defining services for cognitive and emotional aspects of stroke, among other conditions, for the Project’s commissioners’ toolkit (http://www.neural.org.uk/nhs-england-community-project-for-neurology).

She is neuropsychology lead on a number of multinational trials for the pharmaceutical industry. She has worked extensively on psychological aspects of MS, including measurement of cognition and it’s relation to pathology and other disease variables. She is also investigating how risks and benefits of MS medication are best communicated to patients.

Her research also includes work on stroke patients in collaboration with other investigators within the ICR2UL.

She has published over 60 peer-review articles and has an h-index of 30. She is a frequent contributor to international scientific meetings and committees and is a Trustee of the UK MS Trust, with whom she has authored the MS cognition website www.stayingsmart.org.uk. She is co-chair of Brief International Cognitive Assessment for MS initiative (www.BICAMS.net) and Secretary of the International MS Cognition Society (www.IMSCOGS.com).

Dr Aigul Baltabaeva

Dr Aigul Baltabaeva has graduated from Kyrgyz State Medical school. She divides her time as a Consultant Cardiologist between Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital and Ashford and St Peter's Hospital. Her main subspecialty interest is in cardiac imaging including all modalities of echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging. She has broad research background and maintains academic interest in cardiology in busy clinical environment.

Her main research interest is focused on studying changes in cardiac geometry and function in cardiovascular disease. Aigul’s PhD thesis looking at cardiac remodelling in hypertension received numerous awards and distinctions at international level. Dr Baltabaeva has an experience of a core-lab cardiologist for multicentre European study looking at regression of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in patients with Friedreich's ataxia. Currently Dr Baltabaeva is a principal investigator of major study looking at the incidence of significant mitral valve incompetence in acute heart failure. She maintains close connections with native Kyrgyzstan and just completed observational research study in remote rural district on the prevalence of cardiac disease amongst indigenous population.

Mike Mahmoudi

My research interests are the role of DNA damage and repair mechanisms in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis as well as the potential for utilising circulating micro-RNAs in elucidating the pathophysiology of isolated coronary calcification.

I am currently the principal investigator of a study examining the expression of genes involved in the DNA damage and repair-signaling pathways in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in patients with coronary artery disease and determining whether the expression of such genes can be correlated with plaque anatomy as assessed with frequency-domain optical coherence tomography.

I am also the principal investigator of a study investigating the potential for a “micro-RNA-signature” in patients with isolated coronary artery calcification as measured by CT coronary angiography. microRNAs are isolated from PBMCs for microarray analysis to predict potential micro-RNA targets and to examine the molecular/signalling pathways that characterise the pathophysiology of isolated coronary artery calcification in humans.

35. Mahmoudi M, McDonagh S, Poole-Wilson S, and Dubrey SW (2003). Obstacles to the initiation of beta-blockers for heart failure in specialized clinic within a district general hospital. Heart, 89, 442-444

Dr Michael Wood MBBS, BSc, PhD, FRCP

Michael Wood is the Clinical lead for Respiratory Medicine at Ashford and St Peters Hospitals (ASPH) and a Training Programme Director for Core Medical Training at Health Education Kent, Surrey and Sussex. He qualified from King’s College London and trained in and around London including specialist training at University College Hospital, The Royal Free Hospital and the London Chest Hospital. He won a Cancer Research UK Clinical Research Fellowship and gained his PhD in 2005, following research into Malignant Mesothelioma and tumour cell signalling inhibition, at the centre For Respiratory Research, UCL. After completion of his specialist training, he undertook further training in interventional bronchoscopy in Perth, Australia before returning to the UK to take up a consultant post in 2006. He has set up a highly successful endobronchial ultrasound service at ASPH and helped develop new real-time cytology techniques for bronchoscopy. There are several pharmaceutical trials running at ASPH concurrently with which he is involved, in the treatment of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and soon to start trials with treatments of non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease and planned trails in pulmonary fibrosis. He has presented research at National and International Respiratory meetings.

Professor Pankaj Sharma

Professor Pankaj Sharma is a consultant neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Professor Sharma holds a University of London Chair of Neurology at Royal Holloway. He is a former British Heart Foundation Clinician Scientist at Cambridge and a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Medical School. He holds double doctorates from both the University of Cambridge and University of London. Most recently he led the internationally renowned Imperial College Cerebrovascular Research Unit at Imperial College London.

Professor Sharma’s research seeks to use genetics, genomics and proteomics to advance human understanding of cerebrovascular disease in three key areas: prediction, diagnosis and treatment of stroke at the molecular level. He has a particular interest in the genetics of stroke in ethnic minorities, particularly South Asians and Middle Eastern populations.

Kate Sargeant

Kate is the manager of ICR2UL and is responsible for its day to day operations. In addition, Kate is the main contact person for events and lectures that are handled by the institute.

She has extensive experience in event organisation and has been a Personal Assistant for 15 years in the commercial sector.

She is also the Executive Assistant to ICR2UL Director, Professor Pankaj Sharma.